1. Be prepared—keep a gas mask handy at home, at work (especially in high-rise office buildings where the mask can help you escape in smoky or dusty conditions), and in the trunk of your car. A gas mask by your bedside is your best option in a fire for escape and rescue of your family.

2. If you fear you have been exposed to biological agents (Anthrax, plague, Tularemia, Brucellosis, Q fever, smallpox, viral encephalitic, or hemorrhagic fever) do the following during the one- to six-day incubation period before symptoms arise.

NOTE: This is my own personal list for situations in which you cannot or do not wish to recur to conventional antibiotic treatment, or when such treatment is not available. Copy and implement these suggestions at your own risk. I make no medical claims or guarantees of effectiveness. Your success against these agents will vary according to exposure, the prior state of your immune system, and many other factors.

Do NOT begin antibiotic treatment until symptoms appear. Early or excessive use of antibiotics will destroy the natural bacterial flora in your intestinal tract and render your immune system less effective.

a. Stop eating your normal, cooked food diet.

b. Begin a very light diet (almost light fasting) of raw fruits and vegetables and juices (no commercial products with artificial or natural sweeteners).

c. Drink a lot of water, but do not drink water from public water supplies; avoid chlorine or fluoride. [I recommend installing a water purifying system in your home before a major biological attack occurs. Once it does, there will be a run on equipment. Have several bottles of aerobic-type oxygen liquid on hand for water purification. Oxygen-based purifiers are far safer and better than chemicals or bleach. See the J&A Specialty Products link at the bottom of my website front page to obtain some of these products at very low prices.]

d. Take the following natural and herbal anti-bacterial and anti-viral capsules:

• Natural Vitamin C with bioflavanoids—1000 mg every two hours, along with natural juice or fruit. [If diarrhea develops, cut dose in half. If symptoms of aches or fever begin, take hourly.]

• Raw garlic (crush into tomato juice)—one small clove every six hours.

• Colloidal silver solution—one dropper full of every six hours.

• Echinacea—one capsule three times a day.

• Goldenseal—one capsule three times a day.

• Olive leaf extract—one capsule three times a day.

• Grape seed extract (or other high-potency anti-oxidant)—one capsule six times a day.

e. Use melaleuca (Tea Tree Oil) as a salve for all lesions, open wounds, or sores.

3. If you begin to have symptoms, begin antibiotic treatment immediately, under the care of a physician, if available. Chances are high that despite government assurances, there will not be enough antibiotics to go around in a major biological attack, so it is important to live healthily and stockpile natural alternatives. Learn to live with alternative remedies before your life depends on them since it takes some skill and sensitivity to learn to recognize your own body’s feedback signals giving you hints about what it needs. Remember, too, that natural solutions only work well when your body is NOT loaded down with food, especially junk food or cooked food, which have no live enzymes.

4. Leave any area where infection is growing. Find temporary housing in rural areas. It is best to make arrangements with friends and relatives beforehand. This is important to avoid continual exposure even to low levels of contaminants. Wear your gas mask in the car when leaving town. Don’t worry about looking silly—it may save your life.

5. If you can’t leave the area, close all windows and doors in your home and stay indoors. Wear a gas mask as long as you can do so without undue stress. You must remove it to eat and drink, unless it has a built in water straw.

• Old US M17 series masks with cheek filters. These are hard to replace and tedious to change.

• All Russian, East German surplus masks. The quality is poor for these masks.

• Old, outdated filter cartridges. These filters are still useful, but won’t offer close to 100 percent assured protection, nor do they filter effectively for more than a few hours.

• M9 gas masks with the 60-mm size cartridge. The filters for these masks are oddly sized and are not compatible with the NATO standard.

• Israeli Civilian or M15 military version masks. These are usually the best buy, but they are only acceptable if you replace the stock filter cartridge with a current, dated M95 filter cartridge, which gives the full range of modern protection. Military personnel used to the finest equipment will likely denigrate this choice, but my personal experience with these masks says they are very functional for civilian uses. Adult and youth sizes are available.

• Canadian M69 masks. Some of these masks have had slight leaks at the voice piece. Check and test before you buy.

• Advantage 1000 mask. This civilian version is expensive.

• British S10 mask. This mask has a current NATO filter

• BSK (European standard mask). Available at www.redrainbow.com.

• Canadian C4. This is probably the best and most comfortable mask made, but it’s hard to find in the United States.

• US M40 series. The current issue is expensive.

• US M95 mask. This is the best buy of a modern U.S. model. The mask comes with a well-priced M95 c/a filter, the universal NATO filter, which also can be used with other masks.

• http://www.4starmilitarysurplus.com

• http://www.botachtactical.com

• http://www.redrainbow.com